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I just finished watching Shion no Ou.....and I started yesterday morning after finishing downloading the first batch [1-12] from live-evil (THANKYOU). Man, it's amazing, eh?

I've got to say... as intense as they made the sport seem... the motive behind the murder felt like a bit of a stretch. I didn't feel like I knew Mejin that much to feel the coldness? Emptyness? Reason, motive? for murdering 4-year-old Shion's parents. His brother... I could have understood a little bit more.

The very end when Shion spoke felt famililar.. harry potter lesson familiar... having love over hate makes a stronger person. /shrug. I stilllll loved Shion.

Now that it's over.. it's like nothing can replace Shion I need to find another cute and charming anime to watch. eeep!

I agree that the animation fell abysmally throughout the course of the episode but watching Shion duking it out against Hani as their confrontation peaked towards the climax made the story engaging and gripping.

Even the soundtrack was resounding and climaxing with the pace and the compass of the match.

Spoiler:

Hani is a sad and pitiful person, as described by Shion.

He killed Shions' parents to make her lonely and miserable in order for her to stay focused at earning strength in shougi.

But what Hani did not expect was that another variable greatly influenced Shion's outlook on shougi, and that was the love of her foster family and her friends that made her strong.

What I see through it is that Hani views shougi as the mean to aim for higher places. Meanwhile, Shion views her dreams as the mean to aim higher in shougi.

The conclusion was somewhat clichéd, but I sobbed in near tears when Shion gathered all her efforts and lastly broke the nine-years silence and countered Hanis' words.
Still, I feel awkward about Hanis' last words to Shion at the end of the series. Because analyzing things through Hani, indeed, left a part of his mark on Shion, and no matter how hard she tries to rubs it off, a few bits of the stain never will go away.

What Shion can do is walk her shougi-do (Path of Shougi) and becoming the next Mei-jin, because she loves shougi and wants to enjoy every match as much.

For those who got interested in shogi through this anime, Good video series of "How to play Shogi" for complete novices are becoming available to watch on Youtube from this September on. There are 17 lessons so far today. Each one's length is 7 through 10 minutes. You can get to them through my bookmarks below.http://delicious.com/takodori/hidetchi-shogi-video

Well, I'll to have admit it, I thought Makoto's explanation for his deed was just ridiculous. He murders the parents so that Shion will be alone like he was? (Though he wasn't really; he just chose to abandon his brother.) Did he really think a four-year-old child would be out on the street after this event? What if she had been adopted by people who didn't care a lick for Shougi? How would that have helped his cause? Shion's development as a Shougi player was a lucky accident in this model of events because she happened to be adopted by the Yasuokas. Perhaps he expected that outcome, but he didn't mention it despite mouthing off for the longest time during the match.

And, he decided to do this because of one conversation about one particular move Shion made at her age? I'm sorry, but it's just all too unbelievable for me, and certainly insufficient to justify 22 episodes of build-up.

I know it's bad forum manners to quote posts from months ago but I can't help it. I just finished the series and I totally agree with your opinion. This was one of the most ridiculous motives ever, not to mention that if Makoto was true to his word of using Shion for his own goals there was no point at all of informing her that he was the murderer and thus effectively booking for himself a lifetime or death sentence instead of a better shougi career. I would understand if he had spilled the beans after he had lost the game because he wouldn't have wanted to be inferior in terms of shougi to anyone, wanted to pick his successor personally or something like that but during the game it seemed rather silly of him to do it.

Also, I think the series could have benefited from a few more suspicious possible murderers. I don't mean to brag but once it was clear that it wasn't Satoru, I was 99, 99% sure it was his brother - not because he was particularly suspicious but because there was no other real candidate. And Satoru was so obviously put forward as a possible culprit at the start that it was rather hard to believe he would end up as the actual murderer, so I kept hoping some other shady figure arise. OK, they tried to throw a red herring and hint at even Yasuoka-san being the culprit but he had some point of view moments which clearly did not match that idea, so I did not buy it for more than a minute.

From what I have written so far it's looking like I hate the series or something. Not at all. I really liked the series, it happens increasingly rarely to me to find anime which can make me want to watch more than two episodes of it per day while with Shion no Ou I almost had to stop myself a few times because Idon't like it when goodness runs out in a day or two. Impressive characterization made not knowing the rules of shougi merely a nuisance and not an obstacle for enjoying the show. Also, it was very nice to see a sports (or a quasi-sport as shougi and chess are neither here nor there) anime in which there isn't anyone who starts practicing the sports/board game in question and becomes a world beater in a few months. Even that five grade boy was undone due to him not being used to seeing the opponent's face, that was a very nice touch, IMO.

__________________

'The world we live in is always in darkness.'
'Yes, and that is why we seek light.'

Yeah, while I loved the series as well, there were some obvious flaws. I didn't mind that he killed Shion's parents, but it would have been nice if they had thought up a decent reason for their murder. I don't know, like maybe finding out, something Shion's father did lost him one of his parents, or his friends. That would have made sense, then he goes to get vengeance, only to discover the Shogi board, and Shion able to play, and decides to spare her life.

See, how hard was that. Took me all of 20 seconds to think of a better reason for the murder. Ah well, I loved the series anyway. Like everyone else, just wish they had come up with a better motive for the murders.

While computers have fared well against humans in Western chess, Shougi is remarkably more difficult. The article reports that Western chess has about 10^123 (a one followed by 123 zeroes) different possible games, while for Shougi that figure is 10^224, or just under the square of the figure for Western chess. I'm guessing that the player's ability to replace pieces during the game is at least one source of Shougi's complexity.

Shion fans will not find this part of the article particularly surprising:

Quote:

Originally Posted by New Scientist

The Japan Shogi Association, incidentally, seems to have a deep fear of computers beating humans. In 2005, it introduced a ban on professional members playing computers without permission, and Shimizu's defeat was the first since a simpler computer system was beaten by a (male) champion, Akira Watanabe, in 2007.

Perhaps the association doesn't mind so much if a woman is beaten: NHK reports that the JSA will conduct an in-depth analysis of the match before it decides whether to allow the software to challenge a higher-ranking male professional player. Meanwhile, humans will have to face up to more flexible computers, capable of playing more than just one kind of game.

back to anime well i liked it (personally im not in to detective things but i liked how it was done here) and what i liked the most here is how its shows tension during the matches and ending... its rare to find good anime (with good story or to make u like to watch it again) with good ending